European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 24, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes monday october 24, 1977 Flag raising in the fee Lama Cah a. Zone . Sulzberger terrorists wounded victims of democracy Bonn the germans Are perhaps the Best soldiers in the world although thank heavens they have had no Chance of prov ing this for More than 30 years. They recently seemed to be in the pro Cess of becoming the Best terrorists if one can qualify that uncharted form of brutality. Nevertheless they have not yet devel oped a philosopher or theorist of terror As they did for War which was done with deadly logic by Gen. Karl von Clausewitz. German terrorism and at the forefront of course comes the terrible Baader Meinhoff gang or red army fac Tion has shown itself ruthless brutal and As far As one can ascertain mindless. All in All the gang appeared More effective than its palestinian Irish brazilian argentinian uruguayan and japanese leagues to name a few. Technologically and in terms of method All these groups Are to some degree their objectives frequently differ. On nov. 9, 1969, i wrote Vietnam has been the code word for the formidable array of troubles that has weakened the United states during the past five years. Palestine May be the code word symbolizing other agonies during the next like the red army faction most terrorist organizations plaguing the West have some connection with palestinian Arab William Safire Carter must Unk Lutz himself now every recent presidency has had its Klutz fiction Day that fearsome moment when we Pooh pahs of the Media mafia decide As if on signal that the pres ident is staggering demonstrably. In competent and vulnerable. For Johnson it came with tet for Nixon As watergate began to unravel for Ford when he started bumping his head for Carter last week after his Public fit of pique when nothing seemed to be going right. Newsweek headlines can Carter Cope next instalment Carter in columnists with views As disparate As Pat Buchanan and Tom Wicker correctly assess the mood in Washington a suspicion that Carter like another Engi Neer who once occupied the White House might be a one term the phrase one termer sends tingles of anticipation through republicans John Connally Howard Baker George Bush William Simon and big Jim Thompson of Illinois it also runs a secret thrill through democrats to Udall the Man the White House despises most and Jerr Brown the politician the Carter men fear most. If the Klutz fiction process proceeds at the current rate and the Economy is Down in 1979, Carter could be the second sitting president in succession to be challenged for his party s nomination. In consternation Carter has sent for his image builders Pat Caddell the arabs favorite pollster and Jerry Rafshoon fresh from his Mario Cuomo Triumph to spend two hours with him plotting de Klut zif cation or what is Euph Emited astronaut tidally As a mid course these shrewd typesetters have undoubtedly told him that life in the White House is similar to life inside a drum the pounding is expect Able and tolerable but it is the reverberations that rattle and loosen you Teeth. To reduce the debilitating reverberations the whispers of incompetence the murmurs of presidential isolation the open talk of one termination he is being advised to return to the techniques of the old Jimmy and to renew his sources of strength with the people. Strategically we can expect to see Carter a recognize his Leacock s rider problem and to set priorities Etc. Tacti Cally we can expect to see a More presidential travel inside the u.s., including stays in the Homes of Friendly folks b a Cardigan Clad fireside Chat or two re establishing Eye Contact in prime time c photogenic walks through blighted Urban areas of the cities one recalls the apocryphal question of the carpet bagging pol where Are the Bronx strategically we can expect to see Carter a recognize his Leacock s rider problem and the set priorities so that Energy legislation comes first and tax Reform is permitted to remain the disgrace columns comments the human race seems to prefer b to select and define his political villain whether it be the robber Barons or treaty jingles to give people something to be against other than the president c to shift his focus away from Domestic affairs where a president has to Dicker to foreign affairs where a president can look presidential. Will this de Klutz fiction work to a considerable extent it will. Over the next three months Jimmy Carter will make a comeback in the polls and in the Media mafia for these reasons 1. Presidential weather. Winter is Thebes time for a president he will drag Walter Cronkite Barbara Walters and John Chancellor out on a four continent tour nobody gets mad Over Christmas and january is the time of news Domi Nance through the state of the Union and budget message. 2. The soviets will help. Human rights has now been replaced by quiet diplomacy and the soviets have been invited Back into the Mideast in return the soviets will Grace us with a Summit meeting and a Salt treaty to their liking. Much of the Washington foreign affairs establishment uncomfortable with human rights outspokenness will Call this 3. News is change. White House staff blunders the circumvention of Hamilton Jordan by Zbigniew Brzezinski on Israel or the Lance letter to the Ribicoff commit tee by counsel Robert Lipshutz Are now routine no longer news. What would be newsworthy is a fresh trend revamped staff now responds quickly or Carter pulls out of slump As my conferees and i try to get away from the stale Klutz fiction story.4. Polls fluctuate. The approval rating Only interests amateurs professionals examine the intensity of support ratings. Gallup s measurement of Carters Strong support was 42 percent last March 24 percent today it would be amazing if that plunge did not turn upward soon As he becomes both fighter and statesman and the change in trend will be interpreted As a comeback. C new York times the mouse your pack built militants. They frequently train together or Exchange technical information. I have talked with Irish Republican army killers who told me they had worked with palestinians in the Middle East. There is an undoubted link Between existing terrorism and the nihilism of 19th Century Russia that was described in the writings of Ivan Turgenev. Nihilism How Ever did possess a vague idealism and Gen Tler philosophy of negation and the technical equipment at its disposal was relatively negligible. Once and it is inevitable a modern terrorist group gains Possession of even a crude nuclear device nobody can foresee How it will be used. Although there Are technical books by terrorists like the late brazilian Carlos Marghella Che Guevara or Regis Debray contemporary terrorism has neither its Clausewitz nor its Marx. Broadly speak ing it comprises two groups those who Hope to destroy existing society and re place it with some kind of better millennium and those who wish conquer control Over a particular territory. The red army faction together with its japanese allies or the argentinian Monta neros for example Are what is sometimes called Millen Arians meaning nihilists who wish to bring Down All society and re place it with an uncharted millennium. How the savagery spawned would improve on things is dubious. The palestinians and Ira who might be called territorial simply wish to seize specific geographical areas and destroy those who now govern them like Israel or the United kingdom. It is possible that some Day the current crop of millenarian terrorists May develop their own general theory but so far they seem far More obsessed with tech Nique Are perhaps As anti communist at least in the soviet sense As anti democratic and glibly Praise the Virtues of anarchy without having studied Lack of definable goal or theory makes it excruciatingly difficult to negotiate with terrorists except on the same kind of and hoc basis one would use in negotiating with wholly nonpolitical kidnappers. Meanwhile a sheer Joy in violence for the Sake of violence has been gaining especially in this tormented land until last week s melodrama. The German Federal Republic has made remarkable strides since the Hitler an Ghast Liness and consequent holocaust which left the nation destroyed and amputated. It is a True democracy that has proven itself vibrantly successful. But not even a True democracy is always insensible to the steady hammering of combined physical and psychological blows. Mirabeau the 18th Century French revolutionist described Germany As an army in search of a that in t in any sense True today not even for armed terrorism which anyway seeks its country in Ulster or Palestine. But can some sub conscious Strain be tortured out of the Teu tonic mind along the lines of that dreadful quote repeated in John Wheeler Bennett s the Nemesis of Power ? the German nation is sick of principles and doctrines literary existence and theoretical greatness. What it wants is Power Power Power and whoever gives it Power to him will it give Honor More Honor than he can Ever there is no shred of truth in this state ment As far As the Federal Republic s re action to the red army faction is concerned. But maybe a version of that sick analysis is what made the Baader Meinhoff gang. Now it is badly wounded a victim of democracy. C new York times the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government
